


Never Without You

by mggislife2789



Category: Criminal Minds, Spencer Reid - Fandom
Genre: Carrie - Freeform, Civil War, F/M, Harry Potter - Freeform, J.K. Rowling - Freeform, Janet Evanovich, Stephen King - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-31
Updated: 2016-08-31
Packaged: 2018-08-12 06:33:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7924282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mggislife2789/pseuds/mggislife2789
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A little story about comforting, best friend Spencer for a friend of mine.</p><p>Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters or their original stories. This is only for fun. It's where my brain goes after the credits roll. No copyright intended. Better safe than sorry. ;)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Never Without You

Another one. Another rejection letter.

Why was getting a publisher so hard? She was a great writer, wasn’t she? Stephanie had been trying to get a publisher for nearly six months and this was the fourth consecutive rejection letter. It wasn’t that the work wasn’t good, it was just so competitive to try and get someone to pick up a novel in an age where there were so many. Her agent called just minutes before to inform her that the most recent publisher wouldn’t be picking up her series, and to keep her chin up. 

“This is common, Steph,” Jean said reassuringly. “It’s totally normal for it to take a couple of years to get picked up.”

She desperately wanted to keep the tears at bay. “I know, Jean…” she said, her voice beginning to crack, “I just worked so hard on this.”

Jean had heard all of this before from various other clients. The world of writing and publishing was much more difficult than most people realized. “And it shows, Steph. We just need to find the right publisher to pick it up. We have been submitting to mostly mainstream companies.” She could tell nothing she was saying was helping her client, but she pressed on. “Once we find the perfect publisher, they’ll see how amazing your series is, they’ll pick it up and you’ll have your work out there.”

“I can only hope so, Jean. I’m just so tired.”

“I know, kiddo. But keep your chin up. All your work will pay off soon enough,” Jean replied.

Stephanie needed to get off the phone. She just needed to have a good cry and then she’d push forward - as she always did. “Thanks, Jean. I’ll talk to you later,” she croaked, barely closing out of the call before the dam holding her tears back broke, unleashing a waterfall on her graphic t-shirt.

She pulled a throw pillow from the couch up to her chest and hugged it. Burying her head in the chilly satin, she screamed, letting out all of the frustrations about this whole damn process. Her tears were hot and never-ending; no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t seem to stop. So she didn’t even try. 

After nearly 20 minutes of non-stop crying, she heard a knock at the door. Dammit. It was probably her best friend, Spencer. In the craziness that was today, she totally forgot he was supposed to come over after work, so they could grab dinner together. Wearily, she wandered over to the door and opened it, not even bothering to wipe the tears from her eyes.

“Steph, what’s wrong?” he asked, confused as to her appearance. “What happened?”

Without looking at him, she sat on the couch and whispered, “Another rejection letter from a publisher. I just…I can’t…this is too hard.” The last word barely made it out of her mouth before she began to cry again. He’d seen her cry before, so she didn’t try to stop it.

Spencer and Stephanie had been friends for nearly a decade. He knew everything about her, and he had been by her side through the whole process of writing her novels and trying to get them published. He’d had articles published, but this was different. The whole process was different - and he felt for her. He knew that saying anything just yet wasn’t what she needed.

As he took his seat next to her on the couch, she turned toward him, burying her head in his shoulder and letting go. He moved his arm up to her neck and began kneading there; that always seemed to make her feel better. Another couple of minutes passed by before the crying stopped and she just nuzzled into him.

“Steph, I can’t even begin to imagine how frustrating this must be for you, but your work is really good. It’s just going to take time to get it picked up,” he said, attempting to get her to look at him.

She didn’t think she could cry anymore. “Do you really think so? What if it never happens for me?”

He looked at her encouragingly, “You need to keep doing what you love because you love it, but if it helps I can rattle off some publishing statistics for you.” 

Stephanie laughed slightly into his shoulder before propping herself up, “Please do. It always makes me feel better.”

“Well,” he began, smiling that smile he wore whenever he was about to drop a ton of statistics, “Stephen King’s first novel Carrie was rejected more than 30 times. He actually threw it out, but his wife fished it out and it was eventually published. Janet Evanovich only hit it big after 10 years of trying to get published. Judy Blume, who has sold nearly 80 million books, was consistently rejected for two years before she got picked up. And just for you, J.K. Rowling was rejected nearly 12 times before she got picked up, and when she did, she only received a 1,500 GBP advance because the publisher’s 8-year-old daughter begged for her to publish it.”

He always knew just what to say. Harry Potter was one of her favorite things ever.

“And look where they are now,” he smiled.

She wanted to be published; she knew that much. But she had to keep pushing - some of her favorite authors has persevered through the bullshit, so she’d use that as the inspiration to push forward. Well, that, and having a best friend like Spencer. She leaned over to him and wrapped her arms around his neck. “Thanks, Spence,” she said, burying her head in his neck, “you always know how to make me feel better.”

“After 10 years, I’d better,” he laughed. “Now how about we go down to the Thai place down the road, my treat, and then we can come back here and watch Civil War.”

“Well, Thai sounds amazing right now, but I don’t have Civil War yet, it comes out tomorrow,” she said despondently - she couldn’t wait to buy it.

He reached into his work bag and pulled out a beautiful, new Civil War blu-ray, “I may have gone to Best Buy and begged for them to sell it to me a day early.”

She stared at him in disbelief. “Spencer,” she said, letting her worries fall to the wayside, “I love you and I have no freaking clue what I’d do without you.”


End file.
